“I know what it’s like to have picky eaters,” she said, calling her new Web series a “labor of love.”

“I always sort of wondered why a couple of them were picky and a couple of them were not picky. As I suspected, pickiness turns out to be a very complex issue with a lot of root causes behind it.”

That’s when the mother of four began creating a program for her daughters — 8-year-old Valentine, 7-year-old Charlotte and 6-year-old twins Margaux and Oceane.

“I felt like I needed more than a handful of recipes or a smattering of tips. I felt like I needed an actual program,” she said.

The steps part of the program includes getting the picky eater to help with menu planning, something d’Arabian calls the progressive swap (for instance, going from white bread the picky eater loves to wheat bread then whole-wheat bread) and a 15-minute “No Screen Zone” period before dinnertime.

“I, personally, notice that my kids were crankier and pickier if they had ‘screen time’ — that’s in front of the TV, computers, iPads. Getting them outside is a good way to get them hungry,” she said. “Remember when you were a kid , out skiing or bike riding all day or playing baseball, then you’d come home to eat something and you were so ravenous that it tasted so good?”

D’Arabian said she wanted to share her process with others via FoodNetwork.com because she “hated that people didn’t have a solution that didn’t involve that you failed as a parent.”

“There’s always that, ‘Have your kids cook with you so they’ll want to eat it,’ or ‘Don’t feed them chicken nuggets all the time.’ I just kind of think it’s oversimplified,” she said. “The subtext to all of that is that you’re a bad parent, and that’s not always the case.”

Parents are not let off the hook here, she emphasized, but d’Arabian does think some parents should be given some slack.

“There are a lot of parents who have done it ‘the right way’ or do the ‘right things’ most of the time and still have picky kids,” she said. “If there weren’t some other element at play, why would I have four kids who I raised all the same with varying levels of pickiness?”

While a self-proclaimed cauliflower skeptic, Valentine isn’t quite the picky eater compared to her sisters, according to d’Arabian. Instead the twins and Charlotte tend to be a little more fussy about their food.

“Charlotte’s not the roll-my-eyes kind of picky eater, but the program was helpful for her,” d’Arabian said of her daughter who loves raw cheese but not melted cheese. “Her taste hasn’t changed a ton, but her willingness has really changed, and that to me is a huge plus. As a result of her willingness to try new foods, she’s finding new foods that she likes. She’s super proud that she likes green peas — she just couldn’t believe it.”

The eight-week online workshop isn’t a guaranteed fix-all, but d’Arabian believes it can help families make strides during mealtime.

“The bigger picture for me is developing a positive relationship with food and creating a willing palate,” she said.

“The Picky Eaters Project” launched in late September and has caught the attention of not just parents, but other people who deal with finicky palates.

“People have been sending me messages on Twitter and Facebook, reaching out to me because their husband or boyfriend are picky,” d’Arabian said, laughing. “This can work for any picky eater — adult or child. It’s really useful information no matter how old the picky eater.”

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